The Empathetic Leadership of Straight Shooter Harry Reid

Harry Reid (D-NV) has been a U.S. Senator since 1987 and is currently the Senate Majority Leader. Throughout his 30+ years on the Hill, Reid has worked with countless individuals in his office but one particular story stands out:

"Once, a young communications adviser, Rebecca Kirszner, who had just started working in Reid's Senate office, kept misreading a phone number that Reid had been trying to dial for a radio interview. In his straight-to-the-point manner, Reid asked her, 'Do you have a learning disability?' Embarassed, she quietly said yes. Reid looked Kirszner in the eye and said, 'You must have worked twice as hard to have gotten where you are.' No one had ever said this before to Kirszner, who was taken aback, and moved. 'I did,' she whispered" (p. 79).

This approach by Senator Reid was, in so few words, classy. Being a straightforward person with empathy makes for a remarkable leader.

-Excerpt from "This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral - plus plenty of valet parking - in America's Gilded Capital" by Mark Leibovich (2013).